Scientific study confirms racism exists

A new article from News One reports on a recent scientific experiment which reveals racial bias actually affect individuals’ actions, decision-making, levels of trust, and more–specifically the black-white differences.  Yet again our President’s image is used to make a point.

Another example of hair texture/style and skin shade are being used as a litmus test here, making the point that these physical attributes do matter to people and are taken into account, either consciously or subconsciously.

I was surprised that the article referred to these new studies as “shocking.”  There was nothing about the findings that seemed surprising to me.

A conservative viewpoint on racism

I don’t necessarily agree with Don Smith’s point of view and all of the tactics he uses to make his point, but I actually thought it was interesting to try to understand a different point of view from my own, especially regarding the notion that liberals are not held accountable (enough) for incidents when they themselves perpetrate racism.

Potential example of African-American “ape” imagery

The magazine cover certainly evokes a certain theme.  Even if one were to argue that the imagery was not taken directly from King Kong, the difference in dress and body language alone lends itself to a very similar sentiment as King Kong…

Tea Partier distributed doctored, racist photo of President Obama

A Huffington Post article and a Buzzfeed post both share an account of Tea Party member Marilyn Davenport, with a photo of Obama photoshopped onto an ape; the caption of this altered photo was “Now you know why no birth certificate.”

The panic over Obama’s nationality in itself shows that many people in our country have a fear or mistrust of Obama’s “legitimacy” as an American, not to mention as our country’s president.  To the best of my knowledge, no president in history has ever been accused of not being born here  and lying about it.  I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that this is happening with the first black president.

Also, the whole allusion to African-Americans as “apes” or “monkeys” has an extensive history.  Not only does this single out a group and call them essentially something commonly perceived as less than human.  What is shocking in the very situation is that even President Obama, a powerful world leader respected by many, can be the victim of such blatant and hateful racism.

Obama speech in NYC focused on education gap

When President Obama visited New York City earlier this week, he spoke at at the 20th anniversary of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s Harlem-based National Action Network.  The New York Times published an article that recapped his focus on education, also noting that he needs support from African-Americans in the reelection.  Most of the attendees at the Sharpton event were African-American, and the President focused on education-related issues for African-American students.  “Too many of our kids are dropping out of schools.  That’s not a white, black or brown problem. That’s everybody’s problem.”  Inequality of quality of education or completeness of educational experience is a problem for our whole country, but it is one of a great many related to our nation’s education system.

There are a couple of potentially racist or race-loaded items that stood out to me in the article and in the speech Obama made.  I found it interesting that the author turned so quickly to focus on his need for black supporters, when it sounded like he had promised to speak at the event long before he announced his decision to run for a second term.  I am also curious if Mr. President brought up any other issues in a racial educational gap other than dropout rate.

Racism and Television

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much of “mainstream” television is still very often still very segregated and/or stereotyped, and I wanted to learn more about the history of race/racism and television.  I came across  an interesting article about racism and ethnicity related to television on the website for The Museum of Broadcast Communications.  I also came across a fairly long but interesting video posted to an individual’s blog.  This video focuses a lot on how dangerous reality television is because while it is marketed as “real,” there is major manipulation of story and characters.  The fear is that some television viewers may not fully understand this reality T.V. “setup”and accept outrageous or stereotyped stories or characters.  There are also many other interesting points that are brought up, including the selectivity or tone used when crimes are reported on the news.  While this video gives a lot of history, it is solely focused on the portrayal of African Americans on T.V.  Additionally, I would like to learn more about other groups and their historical televised portrayal.

Pictured above: Alfre Woodard on Desperate Housewives

It could be argued that there has been progress in some ways in regards to more positive portrayals existing for people of color, but television has also gotten more complex with many more options, channels, etc.  Media is an extremely powerful force, and repeated images/themes/stereotypes most likely can affect individual viewers if not general cultural values and norms.

American dream not a reality for Japanese-American survivor of internment camp

In the U.S., we don’t talk much about the internment camps, also called concentration camps, that our own country installed during World War II for Japanese and Japanese-American residents and citizens.  I found it interesting and not at all surprising that an interview with a survivor of an American-run concentration camp was found on BBC News and not an American news source. Toru Saito lived in one such camp in Utah during his childhood, and experienced continued racism in his life.  He says “I believe in the American dream from those who are in power and those whose ancestors come from Europe.”  But for him, he never felt he truly could live the American Dream.  His experience of ostracism  and racism seems to have affected him permanently.  Watch his interview here.

Segregation still present in the U.S.

The 2010 census results are coming in, and they are revealing that our communities remain pretty racially segregated.  This means there could still be a limitation of interactions between racial or ethnic groups, causing a lack of familiarity.  In my opinion, the less familiar a particular group is, the more ignorance or fear a person may have toward that group; fear and ignorance often result in cultural phenomena such as racism.

This article discusses the implications of this separation and provided a slideshow of color-coded maps depicting the 10 most segregated cities. Los Angeles is pictured here as an example of one of the cities.

Confused tourists

So, I had a personal experience on the subway a few days ago that left me unsettled about something, and left me with many questions.  When should strangers clarify, challenge, or confront racist comments?  Always?  Never?

I ran into a couple from Montana who were wide-eyed and lost in the 125th ABCD station.  I assured them they’d be able to get to Penn Station on the A train and started making small talk with them.  They asked where they had just been, as in which neighborhood was in/around the 125th stop.  As far as I know they had just been in the station (went way too far uptown by accident) which to me looks pretty much like most subway stations.

I told them the 125th St. station was in Harlem.  The woman almost gasped, turned to her husband and said “so, how was the cultural experience for you?”  They were both nervously laughing, and then proceeded to say “We’re from out of town, can you tell?”  I continued to have a polite conversation with them and helped them make sure they knew where they were going.  I really wanted to know how much was loaded in the “cultural experience” question.  I wanted to clarify, to open a dialog.  I didn’t.  They were speaking fairly loudly on a train that was not at all empty and I guess because of these factors, my impulse was not to confront it or ask “what do you mean by that?” in this particular situation.  But why?  What was the worst that could have happened?

My guess is that this couple had very little exposure in Montana to anyone other than White people.  It could have been to the woman an innocent joke or an attempt at humor that was obviously backed by anxiety and fearfulness.  Next time I encounter a situation like this, I want to challenge myself a little bit more in maybe asking the questions that would lead to opening a dialog.

Institutional racism in the education system

Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote a very thought-provoking article, Separate and Unequal, in an op-ed column earlier this week.  I really enjoyed reading it.  When I was growing up, my family was very pro-education and anti-racist.  I grew up in a very economically, racially, culturally diverse school system with very good teachers.  I know that my experience was most likely an exception to the norm, but that the mix of economic classes may have actually benefited the school itself as well as the students in teachers.  What Bob Herbert does is really bring up what the issues are, including the common racial and economic segregation of schools.  It is difficult to discuss these topics on politically rocky terrain such as the relationship between race and education.  What can our government do and what can individuals do in the U.S. to improve this grave educational situation which is further marginalizing so many children and adolescents?  Is there a way the “de facto” segregation in schools can lessen, and if so, will that improve overall education across the board?